appointment of the purchasers. Heliogabalus used also to distribute tickets amongst his guests, with such prizes as ten camels, ten flies, ten pounds of gold, ten pounds of lead, and ten eggs.

It is not with recollections of splendour and festivity alone that the Piazza di S. Marco is associated. Spectacles of terror and scenes of blood have been exhibited within its boundaries. Whenever an open and awful example of severity was judged to be necessary, this was the place in which it was displayed to the people. Sometimes the executions took place between the columns of the Piazzetta, at other times in the Piazza. It was in the latter place that the body of the unfortunate Antonio Foscarini was exposed, after he had been strangled by the order of the inquisitors. The history of this infamous transaction, which drew down a just odium upon the government of the republic, has been related with some particularity by Sir Henry Wotton, at that time ambassador from the English court at Venice.

Two men of mean condition, by name Domenico and Gerolamo Vani, inhabitants, but not natives, of Venice, tendered themselves to the inquisitors of state as evidences against certain noble Venetians, who, as they alleged, were accustomed secretly and in disguise to frequent the palaces of the foreign ministers, and particularly of the Spanish ambassador, at that time highly obnoxious to the Venetian government. The informers, having obtained the stipulated reward, delivered to the inquisitors a list of the accused, at the head of which stood the name of Antonio Foscarini, a senator of the republic, and as such strictly inhibited from all intercourse with foreign

ministers. In support of their testimony the Vani referred to Giovanni Battista, a servant of the Spanish ambassador; but suggested the propriety of proceeding against Foscarini on their own evidence, as the examination of the servant might be the means of warning the other offenders of their danger. This course the inquisitors resolved to pursue, and Foscarini, passing at night from the senate through the ducal palace, was seized, muffled, and committed to close prison. Being examined, he denied the charge; but as that denial could not be received against the positive testimony of two witnesses, he was, by sentence of the Council of Ten, strangled in prison, and hung by one leg on a gallows in the Piazza, from sunrise to sunset, with every imaginable circumstance of infamy. His very face was so bruised by his being dragged on the ground, that his features were with difficulty recognised; an act by some considered as a brutal favour, intended to prevent his being known.

The infamous Vani, having been thus successful, proceeded with more confidence in their denunciations, and named another noble Venetian, Marco Miani. Fortunately, however, one of the inquisitors, doubtful perhaps as to the truth of their story, urged the necessity of examining Giovanni Battista, who had left the service of the Spanish ambassador, and was residing in Venice. Being secretly interrogated, he contradicted in every particular the testimony of the Vani, who being confronted with him confessed, without the application of torture, the falsehood of their accusation with regard to Miani, and were sentenced to be hanged. Before their execution the nephews of Foscarini petitioned the Coun

cil of Ten that the informers might be again examined with regard to the guilt of their uncle; a request with which the Council, probably with the view of concealing the infamy and injustice of their proceedings, refused to comply. The criminals having, however, declared to their confessor the innocence of Foscarini, the Council could not avoid issuing a declaration to that effect, and the body of the sufferer was piously removed by his nephews from the infamous receptacle into which it had been cast to the tomb where his ancestors reposed. Surely," says Sir H. Wotton, "in the 312 years that the decemviral tribunal hath stood, there was never cast upon it a greater blemish."

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THE CHURCH OF ST. MARK.

In that temple porch

(The brass is gone, the porphyry remains)

Did Barbarossa fling his mantle off,

And, kneeling, on his neck receive the foot
Of the proud pontiff.

ROGERS.

THE church of St. Mark, one of the most celebrated temples in the christian world, was originally built in the ninth century, when Giovanni Participatio was Doge of Venice. The breve, or inscription, in the hall of the Great Council, recording the deeds of the doges, alludes to this fact in the following words :-- "Sub me Ecclesia Sancti Marci conditur, ibique corpus deponitur."

The church thus erected, having been consumed by fire in the year 976, was replaced by the present edifice, which was completed in the time of Domenico Silvio, who was elected Doge in 1071. It exhibits a singular mixture of classical and oriental architecture, which has been severely but justly criticised by Mr. Forsyth. "Though most of its materials came from Greece, their combination is neither Greek, nor Gothic, nor Basilical, nor Saracenic, but a fortuitous jumble of all. A front, divided by a gallery, and a roof, hooded with mosquish cupolas, give it a strange unchristian look. Nowhere have I seen so many columns crowded into so small a space. Near three hundred are stuck on the pillars of the front, and three hundred more on the balustrade

above. A like profusion prevails in the interior, which is dark, heavy, barbarous, nay, poor, in spite of all the porphyry, and oriental marbles, and glaring mosaics that would enrich the walls, the vaults, and pavements. In fact, such a variety of colours would impair the effect of the purest architecture."

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Being come into the church," says Evelyn, "you see nothing and tread on nothing but what is precious. The floor is all inlaid with agates, lazulis, calcedons, jaspers, porphyries, and other rich marbles, admirable also for the work; the walls sumptuously incrusted, and presenting to the imagination the shapes of men, birds, houses, flowers, and a thousand varieties. The roof is of most excellent mosaic. But what most persons admire, is the new work of the emblematic tree at the other passage out of the church. In the midst of this rich volto rise five cupolas, the middle very large, and sustained by thirty-six marble columns, eight of which are of precious marbles; under these cupolas is the high altar, on which is a reliquary of several sorts of jewels, engraven with figures after the Greek manner, and set together with plates of pure gold. The altar is covered with a canopy of ophir, on which is sculptured the story of the Bible, and so on the pillars, which are of Parian marble, that support it. Behind these are four other columns of transparent and true oriental alabaster, brought hither out of the ruins of Solomon's temple, as they report."

The mosaic work in the church of St. Mark was introduced by the Doge Domenico Silvio, who restored the edifice, after its destruction by fire in the preceding cen